I write in response to Khairull Anuar Jamlus' thought-provoking and at the same time, misleading stance towards Islam's place on the global front, in a letter titled: Not planning to adopt a Western liberal lifestyle .

Though I applaud the man for having more than just a transient understanding of the issue at hand, he had displayed a 'one-eyed-view' of the matter and has a tendency to make superficial coverage on the issues which require multi-layered reasoning.

Mr Khairull's article implied that decadence in society and the degeneration of morality is related to an absence of Islamic teachings. It is quite a sweeping statement to make without proper evidence. Quite like charging head-first into a brick wall without a helmet, isn't it?

And quite a bit or irony too, I must say. While Mr Khairull lambasts the current anti-Islamic movements in Malaysia and even around the world for being discriminative and the main cause of Muslims worldwide being 'forced' to accept mainstream Western lifestyles, he is very much guilty of doing the same thing by equating Western influences with the breakdown of morality.

While I appreciate the efforts he took in compiling a comprehensive data of American social ills and the costs of battling it, I'm sure we would all be more informed if he also added statistics of the social ills in highly religious Islamic countries as a matter of comparison.

Perhaps then, could we properly address the issue and find out why graphs on rape, incest, paedophilia, child abuse, oppression of women, murder, poverty, unemployment rate, rape and general discontent have been steadily rising in Islamic nations?

Is Mr Khairull advocating that the teachings of Islam are incapable of co-existing peacefully with other religious beliefs of the world out of fear that it would be contaminated? Is Mr Khairull also implying that for Islamic teachings to bear fruits of success, one would have to eradicate all other forms of beliefs and religion so as to create the perfect utopian, Islam society?

Secondly, Mr Khairull's article takes a satirical dig at a society without PAS which sees the widening of the gulf between the rich and the poor. In that same society, drugs and alcohol consumption increases, sexual diseases runs rampant and all the unimaginable happens.

I find this stance quite amusing, really. It goes to show that Mr Khairull is highly unaware of the phenomenon called 'globalisation', and to be more precise, the adverse effects of capitalism.

I agree with all the problems he has highlighted. Only that they are not caused by religion, and instead, come about through the mechanisms of capitalism which sees multinational corporations get more powerful and we see the emergence of what I would call, the generation of consumers.

The effects of this can be seen in almost every modern, developed nation. It has nothing to do with the religious beliefs of any particular sect or place. There are ways to tackle this problem but since this topic is about Islam and not globalisation, I shall not deviate further.

So Mr Khairull invents a time-machine and transports everyone back into the middle ages where people were less complicated, I am afraid that we have to deal with our problems pragmatically, and do not simply throw religion into the mix and confuse things further.

Trying to create a totally Islamic state in a country of diverse races and beliefs is not the solution. Especially so at a time where religious tensions hang in the balance. Doing that would be breaking down the very foundation of our country's dramatic rise, and that is the harmony and cooperation between the various races.

But hey, those are merely my views. I am but a 22 year-old boy. This is quite a strange world. I could be wrong. So you decide.